In its fourth edition, the Asia Pacific Forum was hosted by the HKUST Business School in Hong Kong for the first time in mid-September 2018. Some 70 students from 20+ CEMS Schools worldwide representing over 30 nationalities participated in a series of activities centered around the theme: “Landing Your Career in Asia”.
Because Asia is where the economic excitement is and where the growth is taking place, this is the region where many students looking for a global career see a wealth of new possibilities ahead. It is very important for them to experience first-hand latest developments in Asia, and the CEMS Asia Pacific Forum offers such unique opportunity.
With many insights into working and living in Asia, the forum has provided a platform for participants to interact with some of the top employers in the region through skill seminars, case studies, professional career guidance and experiential learning activities.
“The CEMS Asia Pacific Forum allowed me to meet, exchange and start a friendship with students with very diverse backgrounds and life-stories,” said Portuguese student Paulo Pitta e Cunha from Nova School of Business and Economics. “We were also provided with opportunities to engage with alumni and corporate partners, such as Maersk Management Consulting, H&M, BNP Paribas, China CITIC Bank International, among others, which made the event terrific!”
Another participant Eva Zhang of the HKUST Business School, thanked the speakers in the Forum for revealing many different challenging, but rewarding, career development paths which she had never thought of.
Representatives of CEMS Corporate Partners were invited to provide students with informed views from different industries in the region.
“Being one of the keynote speakers for such a global event with more than 70 talented students from all over the world is very rewarding,” said Caroline Hart Sehested, Head of Early Talent & Outreach, Corporate Talent Acquisition of Novo Nordisk. “The participants were curious, open-minded and participated with high engagement. They also provided great reflections about their transition from being a student to a young professional.”
Maersk Management Consulting, as the management consultancy of another CEMS Corporate Partner A.P. Moller Maersk, has been an ongoing partner of the annual CEMS Asia Pacific Forum. Its Senior Consult Joel Goh said he was very impressed with the participants who attended his workshop. They participated enthusiastically to solve the cases he provided and asked many insightful questions.
Apart from the intensive skill seminars and workshops throughout the Forum, there were still plenty of networking opportunities for participants to mingle with senior executives from the CEMS corporate partners as well as their peers. The networking drink sponsored by China CITIC Bank International, together with the seafood dinner at Sai Kung, marked a great closing of the series of events.
The original 4-day forum was cut by two days due to the super typhoon Mangkhut that hit the city the same week. Fortunately, the CEMS Student Board Meeting, held before the forum between 12-16 September was unaffected. This was a meeting where all the student board representatives from 31 CEMS schools were invited to attend. This meeting, including a number of plenary sessions, workshops and networking activities, was held for the first time in Hong Kong too.
